Today in my Contemplative Christianity course, we are studying several of the third century mystics - St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Origen of Alexandria. What most people in our culture don't realize is this: in the early days of Christian Spirituality, "salvation" (the process of being made whole) had nothing to do with the modern theory of substitutionary atonement. Christ's death was NOT viewed as a payment to God for human wrongdoing. Rather, the LIFE of Christ was emphasized (even for Origen, who lived in the age of martyrdom), and Jesus was viewed as a mirror in which each of us is finally able to see our own true self. One of the favorite scriptures of these mystics emphasizes the liberation that occurs when we truly SEE ourselves in the mirror of Christ. It says: "But we, who with unveiled faces all contemplate as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Accordingly, Origen could write:
"Let us always fix our gaze on the image of God - Christ - so that we might be able to be reformed in its likeness. By contemplating the divine image in whose image God made us, we will receive through the Word and his power that form which had been given us by nature. The purified spirit, which has risen above earthly things in order to enjoy with clarity the contemplation of God (the Word), is DIVINIZED by what it contemplates. This is what the Apostle meant in saying: 'and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness.' "
This principle of salvation by mirroring was re-emphasized over and over again by the later medieval monks. It is also, as J. Philip Newell points out in his book, "Christ of the Celts," a major principle of Celtic Christian spirituality. Newell summarizes this tradition when he says, "Christ comes to reawaken us to our true nature
. . . HE is our memory."
The question for each of us, Christian or not, is this: what in particular serves as OUR salvific mirror? For me, the beauty of Nature - and of the Divine, including Christ, who is present within the natural world - serves as a mirror in which I am able to find my own qualities of expansiveness, openness, beauty and light. Since early childhood, wilderness explorer John Muir has functioned as another of those mirrors. In him, I am able to see my own passion, playfulness, joy and interior wildness. For each of us, the primary mirror will be unique to our own personality. May each of us discover this day the primary mirrors that reveal to us who WE really are!
Photo: Mount Rainier mirrored in Reflection Lakes, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 26, 2015
"Let us always fix our gaze on the image of God - Christ - so that we might be able to be reformed in its likeness. By contemplating the divine image in whose image God made us, we will receive through the Word and his power that form which had been given us by nature. The purified spirit, which has risen above earthly things in order to enjoy with clarity the contemplation of God (the Word), is DIVINIZED by what it contemplates. This is what the Apostle meant in saying: 'and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness.' "
This principle of salvation by mirroring was re-emphasized over and over again by the later medieval monks. It is also, as J. Philip Newell points out in his book, "Christ of the Celts," a major principle of Celtic Christian spirituality. Newell summarizes this tradition when he says, "Christ comes to reawaken us to our true nature
. . . HE is our memory."
The question for each of us, Christian or not, is this: what in particular serves as OUR salvific mirror? For me, the beauty of Nature - and of the Divine, including Christ, who is present within the natural world - serves as a mirror in which I am able to find my own qualities of expansiveness, openness, beauty and light. Since early childhood, wilderness explorer John Muir has functioned as another of those mirrors. In him, I am able to see my own passion, playfulness, joy and interior wildness. For each of us, the primary mirror will be unique to our own personality. May each of us discover this day the primary mirrors that reveal to us who WE really are!
Photo: Mount Rainier mirrored in Reflection Lakes, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 26, 2015
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